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Thread: Why does snot turn green?

  1. #1
    Elephant CRSP's avatar
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    Default Why does snot turn green?

    When you have a cold, what is it in snot that turns it green? Surely it's bacteria of some sort creating some substance, but what is that substance?
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  2. #2
    Elephant Wheresgeorge04's avatar
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    Default Re: Why does snot turn green?

    From here:

    "The green colour is due to immune cells called neutrophils. These are the first cells to appear when bacteria start infecting the nasopharynx. Neutrophils will engulf the bacteria (phagocytosis) and begin to destroy them within themselves using potent digestive enzymes (amongst other things, another being hydrogen peroxide). One of these is lactoferrin and other enzymes are dependent on iron for their activity. The colouration therefore comes from the iron. Ferrous iron compounds are green. It turns yellow the bacteria have been around for a while and other cells start moving in and dying

    Dr Martin Powell, Caerphilly, Wales"

    Joe

  3. #3
    Oliphaunt
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    Default Re: Why does snot turn green?

    While I agree that this is the current theory given in anatomy and phys courses, I'm not satisfied with it. We've all had, I'm sure, respiratory infections with white mucus - where are the neutrophils with their ferrous compounds then? Neutrophils are always present in the nasopharynx, phagocytosing and destroying thousands of bacteria all the time, even if we don't have an infection - why isn't our snot always green tinged, or green streaked? If yellow/green mucus indicates specifically bacterial infections, then why does the doctor still say I have a virus and antibiotics won't help? I haven't gotten a good answer for those questions.

    In Traditional Chinese Medicine, the color of the mucus is an indication of the nature of the imbalance and a clue for how to treat it. Clear/white mucus is Wind Cold and would be treated entirely differently from yellow mucus, which indicates Wind Heat. Treating all "respiratory infections", even all "bacterial respiratory infections" or all "common colds" the same way won't work in TCM, and may be one reason why double blind placebo controlled studies using Western definitions of illnesses don't show as good results with TCM as we'd like.
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  4. #4
    Stegodon
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    Default Re: Why does snot turn green?

    Quote Originally posted by WhyNot
    While I agree that this is the current theory given in anatomy and phys courses, I'm not satisfied with it. We've all had, I'm sure, respiratory infections with white mucus - where are the neutrophils with their ferrous compounds then? Neutrophils are always present in the nasopharynx, phagocytosing and destroying thousands of bacteria all the time, even if we don't have an infection - why isn't our snot always green tinged, or green streaked?
    It only becomes green once the neutrophils have migrated into it in massive amounts.

    If yellow/green mucus indicates specifically bacterial infections, then why does the doctor still say I have a virus and antibiotics won't help? I haven't gotten a good answer for those questions.
    Just because you have a primary viral infection doesn't mean there isn't some bacterial or other complications as well. Also he could just be giving a stock answer because people won't take "nobody gets antibiotics unless their life depends on it due to bacterial resistance" for an answer.

    In Traditional Chinese Medicine, the color of the mucus is an indication of the nature of the imbalance and a clue for how to treat it. Clear/white mucus is Wind Cold and would be treated entirely differently from yellow mucus, which indicates Wind Heat. Treating all "respiratory infections", even all "bacterial respiratory infections" or all "common colds" the same way won't work in TCM, and may be one reason why double blind placebo controlled studies using Western definitions of illnesses don't show as good results with TCM as we'd like.
    Happen to have a link to that study?

  5. #5
    Elephant
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    Default Re: Why does snot turn green?

    What about that brownish color sometimes? Its usually of thicker, you know, the kind you do a quick sniff but can feel the dried part somewhere up in the tubing. It sure wasn't green to begin with. What's with that?


    TMI?

  6. #6
    Stegodon
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    Default Re: Why does snot turn green?

    Is green snot indicative of a bacterial infection? Because I've picked up a doozy of a cold, and by Day Three was coughing up little green chunks. Seems early for a bacterial infection to set in. I thought those usually hit at the end of a cold, if you got them at all.
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  7. #7
    Elephant
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    Default Re: Why does snot turn green?

    Quote Originally posted by Clayton_e
    What about that brownish color sometimes? Its usually of thicker, you know, the kind you do a quick sniff but can feel the dried part somewhere up in the tubing. It sure wasn't green to begin with. What's with that?
    My guess- dried blood maybe?
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  8. #8
    Elephant
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    Default Re: Why does snot turn green?

    I have nothing to add to the discussion except to say that, when I was in the Navy, we all had blue snot from breathing in lint and dust from blue uniforms. That sucked.
    There is more than one way to burn a book. And the world is full of people running about with lit matches. -- Ray Bradbury's "Coda"

  9. #9
    aka ivan the not-quite-as-terrible ivan astikov's avatar
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    Default Re: Why does snot turn green?

    I too have nothing to add except Mucous and The Membranes is a great band name.
    To sleep, perchance to experience amygdalocortical activation and prefrontal deactivation.

  10. #10
    Stegodon
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    Default Re: Why does snot turn green?

    Looks like my green snot may indeed be a bacterial infection as I now have conjunctivitis with eye goop. Blech. Going to get doctor's appointment today.

    MsRobyn, you think blue snot is bad? The very first college level art class I took was a figure drawing class with charcoal as the only medium. Six weeks long, three hours a day, in a class with twenty other people drawing with crumbly charcoal sticks. I got charcoal embedded the skin on my arm, and I blew black for two weeks afterward.
    The panther is like the leopard, except it hasn't been peppered.
    If you see a panther crouch, prepare to say "ouch!".
    Better yet, if called by a panther, don't anther.
    - Ogden Nash

  11. #11
    Stegodon
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    Default Re: Why does snot turn green?

    Quote Originally posted by RoOsh
    My guess- dried blood maybe?
    I'll buy that. My (late) cat was a 'flu carrier and used to sneeze his little head off from time to time. After a bad bout - which no doubt burst blood vessels - his snot would be brownish. The same has happened to me because because I have weak blood vessels inside my nose after a bike accident (I took a tree to the face. Don't worry - I'm still pretty. :dub: ).

    You know, somewhere there must be a medical treatise - probably the winner of an Ignoble Prize - which tries to extrapolate the general health and condition of a person from their mucosal emissions.

    "...generally, seminal fluid should not be purple. Such colouration may indicate excessive consumption of red cabbage...etc".
    Anything is possible if you use enough lubricant.

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